Mamazen

This weeks lofty goals

Inspired by Adina's insomnia post, and my child's sudden interest in sleeping much longer without boob, I have a lot I'd like to get done this week.

Monday (what we did)
Monday morning cleaning/prep dinner
Work
Picked up twin bed to put next to mine for SOMEONE (hopefully not me) to sleep in
Picked up WORMS (more on that later!)
Ikea trip for bedding for said twin bed.

Tuesday
Gym class
Back to Ikea for missing hardware for bed
finish planting flowers/pots if weather allows (not looking like it)
Laundry
dinner at Joi's mmmmmm someone else's cooking!
Tuesday cleaning/possibly deal with dining area mess
Assemble bed, and pray kid sleeps in it

Wednesday
Wednesday cleaning
Purge toys
Weed side bed
Park/play if it warms up

Thursday
Thursday cleaning
Possible lunch date
Ruby to Joi's house
Work
Ryan home! (after almost two weeks away - with a short appearance in the middle)

Friday
Clean/organize guest room for MIL visit
clean front and back porch
Tidy rest of house for MIL visit
Primer stairwell/hallway, and hopefully put one last coat of paint on the basement bathroom

Saturday
Grandma arrives
B's birthday (must find time to make a bday shopping trip!)
Dinner at Hopworks! who doesn't love an organic brewpub that has a kick ass play area?

Sunday
Grocery shopping for the week
Hopefully a little alone time for Ryan and I, or hell, just me would be ok too.

Yeah it sounds like a lot to me too. Guess I'd better get crackin!

Whelmed... overly

The amount of STUFF i have to do lately has knocked me for a loop, and as I have been avoiding doing stuff, I've wanted to blog about it... and then it paralyzes me... and I can't even blog about it! However this morning
Adina wrote about her same process so well, I felt the need to get it out, and hopefully move on (and get stuff done)!

Every spring I get this huge bug to clean, organize and get my act together. I know I'm not alone, as I'm reading about it all over the blogosphere, so I'm sure you're nodding your head in agreement. Two years ago, I was heavily pregnant and nesting like a lunatic and I cleaned this house like it was nobody's business. (can we say, q-tips on the baseboard?) I organized baby clothes and counted diapers and was in heaven. My virgo rising had RISEN!. Then along came Ruby and life as we know it changed forever. It took a while to get my mojo back and it took a lot longer to figure out how to keep a house livable while being a mama. This spring my inner Virgo again is bubbling out of me like a geyser and I'm struggling to figure out how to placate it, while being an attentive parent.
I'm not a huge TV person, never have been. I'm not anti-tv... I'm just not that into it. I don't like it on for background noise, and I don't watch it much when I'm alone. I wanted to be that parent who's kid didn't watch any TV till she was over 2... and then teething and sickness and toddlerhood came and that goal went out the window. I found that some days I needed it on just so I could cook a meal, and somedays I turned it on to placate the cranky kid who wanted more of me than I had to give. I found myself turning to it way more often than I was comfortable with... and I had to re-assess what was happening. My ability to be a creative and resourceful parent was out the window with my lack of decent rest, and my kids short or non-existent naps. Days were long and mama was short. I found myself saying "no" a lot more than "yes" and just going through the motions. I'm sure all parents have days, weeks like this so I'm not going to beat myself up too much over it. however, things need to shift.
Lately the TV hasn't been on much at all, and when it's on it's truly because I NEED her to be distracted by it. (like while i had a conference call for work this morning). I'm trying to use her (short) naptime to do the things that I can't do with her and spend more time involving her in what I am doing. This means most projects take twice as long as they should and sometimes involve twice as much cleaning, but i feel like I'm doing two things at once (or twice or three times if she dismantles it again!) I'm trying to organize my cleaning schedule so that I do a little every day, not all at once. I'm trying to do laundry every day, not a mountain on the weekend. It's slowly shifting,but it's shifting.
My basement is getting closer to completion, and with that, I am starting to look around and realize that there is so much to do before i can start seeing patients down there. The entire house will need to be re-organized and deep cleaned. New furniture will be purchased (where is THAT money going to come from?) and eventually a new cleaning schedule will be needed. Clearly, sometimes I'm a forest person, some times a tree, eh?
My goal is to have a clean house, a tidy yard, fresh food on the table, a successful part time practice and time to myself. Reading it all typed out like that makes it sound laughable (actually I did laugh out loud!), but I believe it's do-able. Balance is hard to find in this world, especially for a parent that runs a business and is an over achiever. (hey, at least I can admit it!). However, I can only do one thing at a time... and right now I'm going to play playdough with my girl.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things my daughter says that crack me up

1. Puh-Pul= Purple. it sounds very boston and it's adorable.

2. KiKi= Kitty, while pulling her cheek to sign Cat. She also calls Oscar "AAAAA-ka" and Mik is "MIIIIK".

3. Hep Malk= Hemp Milk. girl loves it. as opposed to "Ma Malk" which requires that I remove clothing.

4. AAAAA-MAM= Adam. We keep trying to get the DAM out of her, but damn if she won't say it.

5. Kuh-kul= Turtle. Huh, go figure.

6. Meeeeat! = meat... of course. Blame Daddy and A-mam for that one.

7. RAR = what does a Tiger say? RAWR!!!

8. Bak = burp. Hilarious. You burp, she says "bok" then giggles.

9. Tooooot! = toot. Any noise that sounds like a fart gets that response. When she toots, she gets a shy grin and says in a low voice "tooooooooooot".

10. Suuuuck!= Stuck. Anything that is stuck, or out of reach or closed.

11. Hon-gee!= hungry, complete with a desperate sign and usually repeated 3-4x at a time.

12. Shuggle = snuggle. Oh how i love the shuggle.

13. BEEEER! = what does Adam say? BEER! Yeah, I wasn't around to teach her that one. ;)

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen signs that spring is here!
1. Diapers drying in the sun, not the dryer! (well not every time, but soon soon!
2. Dancing on the back deck in the spring rain!
3.The grass needs to be mowed! But that's not my job!
4.Welcome back Hostas and Lupine!
5.New leaves on my favorite tree. Love that red bark!
6.Garden beds turned and ready for planting (with some chives that came back!)
7.Strawberry plants sending out runners. Just weeks left till strawberry season!
8.Tulips and other blubs coming up to welcome springtime!
9.Gardening gloves NOT winter gloves!
10.Choosing wet rocks off the sidewalk
11. Walks in the park, without layer after layer of clothes!
12.Puddles to be considered
13.Muddy rain boots, not muddy snow boots!

Progress!

Pix of basement progress!
Looking up at what will be the entrance to the basement/office

Looking down the hallway toward the playrooom and office

Playroom! More pix to come soon. The drywall is almost done, then we will start PAINTING!

SPT

It's been a while since i did an SPT. I haven't checked the April theme yet, but.... this is me right now.

9 pm, tuesday night. Baby is asleep and I'm in my PJs about to watch a movie and knit. I'm sure she'll wake up the second I hit 'post".